SLC Marathon will go on as planned despite Boston Marathon bombing

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SALT LAKE CITY – Despite a terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon on Monday, the Salt Lake City Marathon will go on as planned on Saturday.

Police said security for the event is handled by multiple agencies, since the route passes through several different areas. The Salt Lake City Police Department typically has 75 percent of their staff working that day, but they said they don't know if they will increase police presence for Saturday's race yet.

"Right now, it would be irresponsible for me to say we are going to change things drastically," Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said. "I mean, we need to evaluate and see. Information is coming in from Boston. We need to see why was that particular marathon targeted. Was it the city of Boston? Was it just a large scale event, or what took place?"

Burbank said the 26.2 miles of the route is a lot of area to cover, but he believes they are ready for this weekend's race.

In the hours since the bombings, Utah's top security officials have been evaluating all information coming out of Boston. According to Dwayne Baird of the Utah Department of Public Safety, they have been looking closely at whether or not runners have anything to be concerned about this weekend.

"We don't have any credible threat of anything locally happening here, however we will be vigilant to try and understand exactly what happened in Boston and whether that could happen here," he said.

Race director Steve Bingham said he has already met with marathon volunteers to remind them to report any unusual sightings Saturday, but he expects security to run as smoothly as it has for the last decade.

Burbank reassured, "These are one of those days that we don't let people have the day off."